Maple Leafs 4, Bruins 2: Bruins space out in Game 2 loss

The Bruins gave the Toronto Maple Leafs a little bit too much room to operate on Saturday night at TD Garden.

By Mike Loftus/GateHouse News Service

MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA

By Mike Loftus/GateHouse News Service

Posted May. 5, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated May 5, 2013 at 5:02 AM

By Mike Loftus/GateHouse News Service

Posted May. 5, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated May 5, 2013 at 5:02 AM

BOSTON

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The Bruins gave the Toronto Maple Leafs a little bit too much room to operate on Saturday night at TD Garden.

As a result, they opened the door for the Leafs to take command of the best-of-7 Eastern Conference quarterfinals when it shifts to Toronto’s Air Canada Centre for Games 3 and 4.

The Bruins, who dominated the Leafs in a 4-1, Game 1 win, surrendered three straight goals after taking a 1-0 lead in Game 2, and suffered a 4-2 loss that tied the series at 1-1. Game 3 is Monday night.

The Maple Leafs, as expected, made significant changes to their lineup from Game 1, and played a much harder significantly faster game from the start. Two of their goals — Joffrey Lupul’s go-ahead goal midway through the second period, and former Bruin Phil Kessel’s breakaway goal in the first minute of the third — were the result of Toronto being allowed to make easy exits from the defensive zone.

“We lost track of what we did so well in the first game,” said Dennis Seidenberg, who was on the ice for all three of Toronto’s even-strength goals.

“You can’t give them that much room. They were flying, starting from their zone. We didn’t have anybody angling guys, pushing them to one side where you can have a better angle to defend. They came right up the middle.”

The Bruins, meanwhile, made one lineup change out of necessity, and another out of choice.

With defenseman Andrew Ference suspended for an illegal hit to the head of Toronto’s Mikhail Grabovski in Game 1, coach Claude Julien inserted rookie Dougie Hamilton into the lineup, and changed all his defense pairs: Adam McQuaid joined captain Zdeno Chara on the top pairing, Seidenberg dropped back to replace Ference with Johnny Boychuk (minus-2), and Hamilton skated with veteran Wade Redden.

Julien also restored veteran winger Rich Peverley to the lineup, with center Chris Kelly and right wing Jaromir Jagr. Kaspars Daugavins had been the line’s left wing in Game 1.

The Chara-McQuaid pairing ended up working out well enough. They were on the ice for Nathan Horton’s goal 1:56 into the second period, which gave the Bruins their only lead, and Chara had an assist halfway through the third, when Boychuk’s goal pulled the Bruins within 3-2.

The Seidenberg-Boychuk duo didn’t fare as well, though. They were on the ice for Joffrey Lupul’s second goal of the game at 11:56 of the second, which put Toronto ahead for the first time, and also when Kessel scored in the first minute of the third period to make it 3-1.

The Peverley-Kelly-Jagr trio, meanwhile, was ineffective, and Jagr’s blind backhand pass into the middle of the ice resulted in a high-speed, 2-on-2 rush on which James van Riemsdyk converted Grabovski’s pass for a spectacular goal that killed the Bruins’ hopes of extending the game with 3:07 left in regulation. Jagr was minus-2 for the game.

Page 2 of 2 - The Bruins were in decent shape through the first period, despite getting outshot 12-10, and had a strong start to the second, in which they took 18 shots at James Reimer.

Horton’s second goal of the series was the result of a strong net drive by the line that has been the Bruins’ best so far in the series. Horton crashed the net, taking Leafs defenseman Cody Franson with him, as Lucic shot off the rush from the left circle. Reimer got most of the shot, but it then hit Horton, and Franson trying to cover him, and trickled across the goal line.

The Bruins lost that momentum almost immediately, however, when Chara took a tripping penalty just 2:24 after Horton’s goal. Lupul scored on his own rebound with only two seconds left in the manpower advantage, and the Leafs were even less than four minutes after they’d fallen behind.

Matt Frattin, one of the Leafs who didn’t play in Game 1, made a high-speed rush against Seidenberg to set up Lupul’s go-ahead goal. Seidenberg kept Frattin from getting around him and gave him a shove to the outside, but Frattin still managed to pass across the crease to Lupul, who had eluded Brad Marchand’s backcheck.

Kessel’s goal shocked the Garden, but the Bruins went on to dominate the middle 10 minutes of the period until Boychuk was finally credited with a goal with 9:25 to play.